A legal expert says the Supreme Court picked a suspicious date for one of its most charged religion cases this term.
Lisa Graves, a legal expert and author, said on Saturday’s episode of “Unprecedented” with Legal AF host Michael Popok that the justices deliberately scheduled oral arguments in St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy for Tuesday, which is Election Day, to fire up the court’s right-wing base.
The case centers on a Catholic parish in Littleton, Colorado, that was shut out of the state’s universal preschool program after refusing to agree to its nondiscrimination requirement. Graves said the parish claims “a religious basis for allowing discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, you know, or their kids.”
Graves said she combed through two decades of the Roberts court’s scheduling to see whether the timing was routine. “If they were just docketing in an ordinary way of just like sequentially, this case would not be being heard on Election Day,” she said.
She noted the dispute is being framed as “a religious freedom case rather than a discrimination case” and predicted it would be “discussed in some of the pulpits” across the country, “Catholic churches in particular.”
“This is a very partisan political court, this Roberts court,” Graves said. “And I think that whenever it can, it’s trying to sort of juice the base that it perceives, its right-wing base, along these issues.”
Graves also pointed to a recent White House event where she said some Catholic bishops laid hands on President Donald Trump and prayed over him while cameras rolled. She said the White House widely circulated the images, and some of the bishops later apologized and claimed they had no idea it would be used politically a week before the election.
“I suppose they could similarly say we had no idea that the Supreme Court would, you know, decide to take up this case just on Election Day,” she said.
Popok predicted the case would dominate church talk heading into the vote. “Sunday before the election on Tuesday, the chatter in Catholic churches especially is going to be about this particular case,” he said.
Graves held out little hope for a surprise. She warned Tuesday’s arguments would be “a bit of kabuki theater” and said “clearly they have the votes to do this.”
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